


Parade.

by RaccoonEyedNerd



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: A short love story, F/F, more like the beginning of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 06:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15431235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaccoonEyedNerd/pseuds/RaccoonEyedNerd
Summary: Love is easy when you're seventeen, as easy as crashing a '69 Dodge Charger.





	Parade.

**Author's Note:**

> Something very lighthearted for a change, because MoHyo deserves it; as always, thank you for reading (And taking the time to do so), I hope you're having a good day/night!

Jihyo doesn’t doubt for a second when someone asks her to describe herself, the first word that comes to her mind is curious. A single trait that used to mean both heaven and hell for her father, who eventually grew accustomed to it as the years passed by; so it’s not really a surprise when he watches her coming out from the house to check on him and see what  happened.

 

The seventeen years old watches with surprised and concerned eyes how her father’s beloved car seemed to have been involved in a full collision; she immediately looks for him and checks for injuries or any other thing that could explain the massive destruction that was caused to the vehicle.

 

“Are you okay, Dad?” She asks, eyes glinting and eyebrows furrowed in worry. Her father just pats her on the back, humming in answer.

 

Both of them only stare at the destroyed car, Jihyo swears she can hear her father’s heart breaking because the classic sports car had accompanied him since he was more or less her age. The car had literally seen the whole story of her family, ever since her father met her mother in high school, when they married, and even when her mother got a ride to deliver her on the hospital.

 

They even went to her funeral riding the Old Tom.

 

“Don’t worry, cub; It’ll be fixed.” He reassures her, cleaning his hands on an already dirtied piece of cloth.

 

“Isn’t it too expensive?” Jihyo can’t help but ask, they are economically stable, but a blow like that isn’t that easy to pay without having to give up something in exchange.

 

“Don’t worry, I made an agreement.” He says, scratching his always growing beard as a small chuckle bubbles on his throat.

 

“What kind of agreement?”

 

“Well, the one who destroyed it, gets to fix it.” He states proudly, puffing out his chest and placing one of his big hands on Jihyo’s shoulder. “A girlie thought it was a good idea to smash my car for some reason, a bet or something, she said; she’ll come here everyday until she fixes Old Tom.”

 

Jihyo’s frown deepens after she listens to the information, anger bubbling on her chest because she can’t believe kids these days find enjoyment in destroying someone else’s stuff, especially when there were things who carried more emotional value than they could let on. She knows she shouldn’t be too surprised about the lengths some delinquents would go to in order to achieve what they wanted, but still, it was infuriating. So she just crossed her arms, and her father laughed because she was as grumpy as he was regarding Old Tom.

 

“Do you really thing this is a good idea?” She asks, a pang of sadness invading her heart after seeing the Old Tom so messed up. “She broke it anyway, what makes you think she won’t try to steal it now? Those are delinquents, dad, they won’t change easily and they only care about themselves.”

 

“I think your mother raised you better than this.” He says, a knowing expression on his face that makes Jihyo immediately feel guilty. “What do we say about new people?”

 

Jihyo sighs.

 

“I didn’t hear you, cub.” Her father pokes her side with his index finger.

 

“Don’t judge ‘em if you ain’t met ‘em.” She repeated, and her father smiled at her.

 

“Good girl, now go inside, she’s here and I don’t want you to pressure her.” He said, pointing at the street, where a girl riding a bicycle got closer and closer to their home.

 

“I just want to see who she is.” Jihyo pouts, and her father lets out a breathy laugh.

 

“Yeah sure, and I’m an expert ballroom dancer.” He deadpans. “Go get the food started, I’ll go and help you in a bit.”

 

“No need to be that harsh, pops.” She sighs.

 

The man watches with a smile how his daughter practically drags her feet back to the house, not even looking at him before she closes the door, probably to head to the kitchen. He turns and his expression quickly changes to a stoic one, the one he was known by; Mr. Park was a respected man in the neighborhood, most kids were afraid of him because he was big, tall and seemed to always be mad at something. Jihyo used to laugh a lot about it, because she knew his other side and assured him that he was like a teddy bear with an iron costume, but the truth was different.

 

He only smiled to Jihyo because she was the only genuine source of happiness he had left since his wife had left them. There was only Jihyo, Dog the dog, Old Tom and him.

 

He crossed his arms and kept a stoic expression as the girl left her bicycle on his front yard and walked towards him with an ashamed look, biting her lip nervously. He checked on his wrist watch and then looked back at the girl before huffing.

 

“You’re five minutes late, girlie.”

 

“I’m really sorry Mr. Park, I got distracted back at home.” She rushed to say, a panicked expression on her face.

 

“Punctuality it’s very important, young lady.” She scolded her, his deep voice making her look down at her sneakers, muttering a weak “I’m sorry” while scratching the back of her head. “You’ll stay an hour more than we agreed on, let’s see if that helps you correct your behavior.”

 

“Yes sir.” She immediately nodded and Mr. Park asked himself if that was the same girl who threatened him the night before using a gun. It didn’t take long for him to guess what was that all about.

 

“The tools are on the garage, I want you starting on the engine today.” He instructed and the girl almost jumped with the tone of his voice. “I assume you know your way around cars, since you were so interested in mine.”

 

“Yes, sir.” She nodded, not sure if she should elaborate on her answers.

 

“Okay then, you’ll check and clean the engine and injection system. I don’t think there’s a need for me to explain what will happen if you somehow manage to mess my car and leave it in a worse condition.” He waits until she nods before continuing. “Well then, I’ll leave you to work now; four hours, and you need to let me know when you arrive and when you leave so I can call your parents and tell them the time you’ll be back home.”

 

“Yes, sir.” She nodded again.

 

Mr. Park nodded again and then turned to enter his house, stopping a bit before the girl entered the garage to get the tools.

 

“Hey, Momo.”

 

“Yes, sir?” The dark-haired girl squeaked out, and the man almost laughs because she looks like anything but a gangster without her friends backing her up.

 

“I have a daughter, and I better not find out that you spoke with her and neglected your work because of it. I heard about you kid, and I don’t want my girl to get aquatinted with you if you’re going to follow the same path that those punks you hang out with. Are we clear?”

 

Momo almost looks hurt by the way the man talked to her, but Mr. Park knew better than to believe a kid like her, specially from day one. She was just starting, and he was determined to teach her a few things she wouldn’t forget.

 

“Are we clear?” He repeated, a bit harsher.

 

Momo nodded before entering the garage and getting the tools so she could get started.

 

A stupid bet, and now she had to work through god-knows-how-much in order to avoid the police getting involved.

 

**

 

The first couple of days Mr. Park stayed inside the house and didn’t really check on her work, naturally, Momo was starting to lose her patience because she had already checked the entire car and couldn’t find a goddamn piece that was actually working and not about to fall off, and she certainly didn’t have the proper equipment to fix the bumps regretfully caused by herself. She didn’t saw the daughter either, although she did hear her singing in the evenings when she was about to go home; she wasn’t going to say it out loud any time soon, but Mr. Park’s offspring was quite talented.

 

“That’s it, I’m going to end up in jail.” She mumbled to herself after trying to start the ’69 Dodge Charger and not receiving the tiniest of responses from it.

 

Groaning, she got off the car and opened the hood again, checking on the engine and trying to ignore the almost unbearable heat of the summer sun; tying up her hair was the first mistake she did, especially while still being under the hood, because when she heard someone talking to her she jumped and got hit on the back of the head.

 

“Fucking hell”

 

A snort, and Momo gave the dirtiest look to whoever dared to interrupt her.

 

She found a girl sitting on the front porch, sunglasses on and drinking from a bottle of water; next to her, an imposing French Mastiff was also staring at her, but seemed more interested in why a stranger was on its garage than any other thing.

 

“You should be more careful, it’s an special car.” The girl said, and Momo just huffed, ignoring her after remembering what Mr. Park had said before; she wasn’t really having a death wish, so she just went back into work.

 

Momo soon realized things weren’t about to get easier on her, especially when both the girl and the very large dog approached her until they were both standing beside the car, watching her work. She really tried not to look at the Park girl, but it was getting harder at every second she spent there, with her long legs at display; she blushed when the voice of the girl’s father echoed on her head and decided to look at the dog every now and then.

 

She jumped when the big animal growled at her, but with only a flick of her hand, its owner made it shut up.

 

Awkward.

 

“So you do know your way about cars, nice.”

 

“I don’t think your dad would’ve let me any nearer to this one if I wasn’t.” She found herself replying, her mouth being faster than her brain as always. “Y-you should go inside, it’s hot out here.”

 

“I actually came out here to invite you inside, you have to eat and drink something.”

 

Momo just looked at her like she grew a second head, and the dog abandoned them, apparently having the same idea than its owner.

 

“You shouldn’t be talking to me.” She grunts then, looking back at the engine and adjusting the battery connection.

 

“Technically it’s you who shouldn’t talk to me, but dad isn’t home, and I’m certainly not leaving you out here to die out of a heatstroke so, come inside so you can refresh and eat with Dog and I.” The girl said, throwing a small towel to Momo’s face and walking back inside.

 

Momo started questioning herself, was it worth it to die because of food and water? Would her parents miss her if she ended up crucified on Mr. Park’s front yard because she dared to look on his daughter direction? Would he feed her remains to that big ass dog? She had no clue.

 

Then again, the heat was almost unbearable, and she was to be more useful if she was alive than dead on his front yard.

 

With that simple logic, Momo signed her death sentence and cleaned her hands with the towel, looking around and following the Park girl inside the house.

 

“It’s Dog really you dog’s name?” It’s the first thing that slips out of her mouth when she closes the door behind her, and said animal looked at her from the couch, apparently uninterested since it turned its head to look back at the TV. The feeling was reciprocated though, since Momo found the house a lot more interesting after realizing it looked way more… Homey than she imagined.

 

“It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” The girl said from where Momo guessed the kitchen was, so she followed without missing the opportunities to take in every small thing on the house, like the pictures on the walls and a lot of vintage car prints on the hall leading to the kitchen.

 

She found the girl there, preparing three plates and storing one of them inside of the microwave; Momo just stayed there on the door, looking at her and trying to figure out how someone that looked like her would be the daughter of someone like Mr. Park. She crossed her arms and leaned on the door frame, waiting for instructions since she wasn’t going to touch anything or go anywhere on that place without permission any time soon.

 

“It’s creative, I guess.” She answers, and the Park girl turned around with two plates on her hands, giving her a once over and raising one of her eyebrows. “I don’t think we were introduced, my name is Momo.”

 

“The bathroom it’s further into the hall, to your left side, go and refresh yourself, you smell like a truck.”

 

“Yes ma’am” She saluted, still a bit worried about the consequences of her being inside the house but still enough like herself to allow a little smirk and a joke slip past her lips. It didn’t go unnoticed, since the Park girl just snorted, apparently unimpressed, and walked past her, a sweet vanilla smell filling Momo’s lungs as she saw her go towards the table.

 

“I’m Jihyo by the way.”

 

It took Momo five seconds to have a grasp on herself again after staring at her for maybe too long, and luckily it was enough for her to reach the bathroom at least.

 

“My dude, stop the gay.” She muttered to herself while looking into the mirror, right after washing her face and hands free of grease and other car residues.

 

She stared at the stained shirt she had on, and groaned after realizing she wasn’t going to be able to get rid of it that easily; frowning at her own reflection, she wondered why she would want to give a good impression when those people already knew she was… A lost cause. Fixing her bun, she finally walked out of the bathroom and to the table with a more confident stride, sitting in front of the other girl and downing almost immediately the glass of iced water placed in front of her.

 

“Thirsty much?”

 

“Yeah, say that after spending hours beside a hot engine and under the summer sun.” Momo replied, a bit too harsh for her own taste. She chose to look at her plate then, the colorful and fresh vegetables making a more appropriate summer meal than the pizza she would probably be eating back home. “Did you make all of this?”

 

“Half of it at least, dad and I like to do this kind of stuff together.”

 

Momo only nods in acknowledgement, drinking another glass of water before she started eating.

 

“You’re a lot quieter than I thought, Momo.” She chuckles, and her mouth takes the shape of an ‘o’ when Momo gives her a pointed look. “Come on, dad isn’t going to be mad for you being polite and holding a proper conversation with me.”

 

“Okay, I’ll talk, but no bullshit; I wanna know why you’re being nice to me, given what I’ve done.” Momo leans back on the chair and a distrustful look it’s sent into Jihyo’s direction, but then again, it’s not really like her to just sit and be quiet.

 

She does see the similarities between her and her father right after she says that, the girl in front of her changing her position on the chair and leaning forward, supporting her chin on her hand and raising one of her eyebrows in challenge. She was a proud woman, Momo noticed, definitely her father’s daughter.

 

“I’m just curious.”

 

“About what?”

 

“What makes a girl my age destroy other people’s things; did you destroy our car out of fun? Were you drunk? High? Or are you just a careless delinquent with nothing to care about or lose?”

 

And there it was, that word again.

 

_Delinquent._

 

Momo hated that word, at least her friends would make her feel like she was worth something, not like other people and definitely not like Jihyo. It helped Momo to be called like that though, it helped her identify what people she could trust, and who shouldn’t.

 

“None of your business, but if it’s worth something; my intention was not to destroy the car, something went wrong.” She proceeded to explain, resuming her eating. “It’s an awesome car.”

 

“It’s all that’s left from my mother.” Jihyo says with a surprisingly soft voice, and Momo’s blood runs cold when she looks up and sees the honestly on the girl’s eyes. “That’s why my father wants you to finish repairing the Old Tom.”

 

She wants to keep being angry, she wants to keep destroying everything around her because destruction it’s what makes her stronger; Momo wants to shove on that family’s face the fact that she’s untouchable, and maybe that will finally convince her friends that she’s on the group for good, that they can trust her. Still, being on a table, in front of Jihyo, eating something she made to not let her starve or dehydrate because of the weather, receiving that kind of treatment from the people she affected in the beginning was really throwing her off.

 

“I didn’t-”

 

“No, you didn’t, and I bet you won’t either at any point.” Jihyo sighs, and it sounds like she’s used to it.

 

Momo feels ashamed for the first time, and the feeling only worsens when the silence extends itself between the both of them.

 

“Jihyo, I’m back with Dog’s food, did you-” Mr. Park falls silent and her daughter sends him a cheeky smile, Momo practically jumps from her seat and stands up straight as a soldier.

 

“I’ll go back to work, I’m sorry Mr. Park” Momo says before he can scold her, and both father and daughter distinguish a distinct tone on her voice, like she really means it and the apology isn’t just because of being inside of the house. “Miss Park.” She nods in Jihyo’s direction, a silent thank you for the food and water before she practically runs outside the house and lifts Old Tom’s hood to keep working.

 

Both Mr. Park and Jihyo continue with their respective days as if nothing happened, they don’t exchange words about it either.

 

They also choose to ignore how Momo apparently decided to stay two more hours than intended before letting Mr. Park know she was going back home.

 

She looks directly into Jihyo’s eyes when she says she’ll be back the next day.

 

**

 

“You’re early” Mr. Park says after two weeks, as if he never though he would say something like that on his life, sipping from his beer can as he leans on the side of the Charger. Momo nods, and for the first time, smiles enthusiastically at the big man.

 

She hasn’t talked Jihyo since the incident on the dining table, but Momo has been there every single day, working extra hours to fix the car and finally put it into shape; both Dog and Mr. Park accompanied her sometimes, but Momo wished it was someone else’s voice when she was told about all the adventures the car had been through.

 

Still, one day at a time, she’s fixing what went wrong.

 

“I think we’re almost done with Old Tom here.” She says as she finishes cleaning the spark plugs, placing them back and securing them on their respective spots. “I bet this one sounded like a beast on his golden days.”

 

“Yeah he did” Mr. Park chuckles, patting her on the shoulder. “You never told me how you got so good at fixing cars, kid.”

 

“It’s pretty much the only thing I’m good at.” She replied mindlessly, a concentrated look while checking all the pieces were back at their spots, shiny clean and smooth enough to function. “I lived in a car workshop when I was younger so I kinda learned everything there.”

 

“And your parents, what do they think about that?”

 

“They’re kind of new to the parent scene, if you know what I mean.” Momo explains with a smile, cleaning her hands with the small towel Jihyo lend her the first day. “They’re cool with it though.”

 

“Foster kid?” He asks, sipping again from the can before handling Momo a bottle of water, she nods in answer before gulping the liquid.

 

“Not anymore though.”

 

“Good.”

 

She closes the hood of the car and looks to Mr. Park, sliding her fingers across the well conserved blue paint work of the car.

 

“Mr. Park…”

 

“Yes, kid?”

 

“Do you think that the good things we do ever erase our wrong doings at all?” Momo dries her sweaty forehead with her arm, cleaning it after on her tank top; Mr. Park stares at her for a good minute, trying to take in the image of a surprisingly innocent looking girl, she looks more her age than she ever did since he met her. “Like, at the end, do people realize that there’s not only good or evil in people?

 

“People will always talk about the mistakes you did in the past.” He starts, putting his beer can aside. “Most of the people feeds on others wrongdoings because it makes them feel validated over them, I guess. But the only judgement that’s valid it’s your own, kid; the real question you need to ask yourself is: do you feel like a better person than you were when you made those mistakes?”

 

Momo starts placing all the tools back on his box, in silence; she moves to the garage and sets everything back on place before retrieving the car keys from the work table. It feels like an ending when he looks at her, extending her hand for him to take the keys.

 

After almost three weeks, it’s done.

 

“Have you talked to my daughter?” He asks as he examines the keys.

 

“No sir, Miss Park hasn’t talked to me.” She’s quick to answer, like she’s on a rush. “I’ve seen her in and out of the house though.”

 

He hums, a thoughtful expression on his face as he sees Momo’s eyelids fluttering, trying to conceal what was really going on through her mind; it was almost like seeing himself when he was younger, and that was the detail he purposefully left out when explaining Jihyo why he had taken the decision to make her fix the car.

 

“I don’t want to say sorry for what I did.” Momo says, breaking the silence while she enters the garage and takes her bicycle out. “But that’s not the correct thing to say, because I already did it; Instead I think that saying thank you it’s more… I don’t know, appropriate? Uhm I- thank you, for not telling the police and all that. I mean, I’m glad there’s still people like you, Mr. Park, forgiving and kind. Your daughter is the same, and you should be proud of her, you know?”

 

He remembers when he saw her, a couple times, spacing out while working to look at the windows and waiting until something happened; he saw the opened mouth every time Jihyo went out to buy things for the house or to hang out with her friends, the extended hand trying to reach out for her and say something, anything that could ease the pain she had caused. Jihyo had told him about the conversation between them, they weren’t able to really keep secrets from each other for long anyway.

 

He understood, young people were like that.

 

“You should try him out now, Mr. Park. It’s a good day for a ride.” Momo says with a soft smile, untying the shirt around her hips and putting it on.

 

“I will.” He nods and walks towards the garage door that leads to the house. “Just give me a moment.”

 

His footsteps make a smooth sound over the carpet when he walks through the hallway, and Jihyo immediately looks up from her book when she hears the soft knocking on the wall of her bedroom.

 

“Let’s go outside, Cub.” He said, and Jihyo followed.

 

The second youngest in the Park family -Dog was younger than her- thought better than to disobey her father because she didn’t want to see Momo, so she just convinced herself she could be polite for the sake of her father. She just breathed in and put on some sneakers before walking behind him, heavy steps carrying her out of the garage with less than a little enthusiasm until she realized the current state of Old Tom.

 

The blue paint had been recently polished and the bump had already disappeared; alongside the fixed headlights and both terminations and glass shining thanks to the sun, it gave the car an air of its former glory. Old Tom looked almost like it was just coming out from the factory, and seeing it closely enough almost makes Jihyo cry.

 

The car was fixed, but neither Momo or her bike were nowhere to be seen.

 

“I guess she left.” Her father answered her thoughts, and she just hummed to hide her apparent disappointment. An arm goes around her shoulders, and she hugs her dad’s waist from the side as the both of them watch the last piece of the past they couldn’t let go off, and it doesn’t hurt anymore. “Of course she was going to play the rebel again and disobey my rules ‘till the very end, what a kid.”

 

He handles her the keys, and she, surprised once again, looks up at him in confusion.

 

“Do the honors, Cub.” He pats her on the shoulder, taking a step back. “Just make sure not to get caught by the police.”

 

“Dad… But, you wanted it fixed so much and mom-”

 

“We still have her with us Cub, and we have pictures too anyway.” He shrugs, nodding his head towards the car. Jihyo gulps then, starstruck because that was basically her father handling her all of his past, her mom’s and her own.

 

She opens the car and looks at her father once again, trying to check for the tiniest trace of doubt or regret on his face.

 

Nothing.

 

When she hops in and fixes the seat, it feels like she’s about to be a part of a rocket launch or something similar; it’s almost like an out of body kind of situation, that could only belong to a dream. She doubts when she inserts the key, not sure if she could handle the car not starting up after all that it went through; her father can be seen from the window, and he only smiles, urging her to turn the key and start the car.

 

And like a spark, it lights up and comes back to life with an imposing roar.

 

“Woah.” She mutters while holding onto the steering wheel, her dad clapping in delight besides the vehicle.

 

“I knew Old Tom still had it on him!” He cheerfully says, giving the car a pat on the hood before leaning on the driver’s window to look at his daughter. “Go and take him on a ride.”

 

“But what if I mess up?”

 

“You already know all there’s to know about driving a car, and you’re our daughter so you’ll be just fine.” He reassures her, stepping back and looking down their street and beyond. “Oh, and Jihyo.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“What do we say about new people?”

 

He smiles and crosses his arms, and the posture itself, plus the knowing smile, reminds her of Momo.

 

“Don’t judge ‘em if you ain’t met ‘em.”

 

**

 

She doesn’t need to be told anything else when she steps on the gas pedal and drives down the streets she knew by heart, excitement bubbling on her chest as she saw the houses passing by. She drives the car with ease, like it was meant for her, and in a way it makes a sense for her to drive the Old Tom on its new stage in life.

 

And she looks for her on the streets and sidewalks until she sees a familiar silhouette sitting on the porch of a random house in one of the intersections, accompanied for a group of other people.

 

Jihyo was raised well by her parents, and she knew she had to say thank you somehow.

 

“Hey, Momo.” She calls out, getting out of the car but staying close to it for precaution.

 

A number of curious looks are sent on her direction, and the only surprised one it’s Momo’s, who jumps from her sitting spot as fast as she would if it was her father who called out her name, face going paler at every step she takes towards her. Jihyo purposefully ignores the comments coming from the other girl’s group of friends, but it’s like they move in a pack, and as soon as Momo walks towards her, the whole gang it’s backing her up.

 

“What are you doing here, Jihyo? Is Mr. Park okay?”

 

“Yeah, I- He’s fine, I just came here because I wanted to talk with you and say thank you.”

 

“Oh, okay, you know it wasn’t a big deal.” Momo rushes to say. “You really shouldn’t have come all the way for this though.”

 

“I had to.”

 

“What I mean is” Momo takes a step forward so her friends can hear her, putting a hand on Jihyo’s arm as a warning “You really shouldn’t be here, so get the car and go back home.”

 

“What’s up, Hirai?” One of the guys asks, nodding towards the car. “Isn’t that the Charger we send you for?”

 

“Oh that- no, Mark.” Momo says, gently pushing Jihyo back until she touches the car.

 

“Nah, it’s the same one; you said it was crashed and you couldn’t bring it back.” The tall guy says, eyes set on Momo as Jihyo walks around the car and opens the door. “It doesn’t look crashed to me.”

 

Jihyo notices the change on the girl’s stance as soon as she enters the car and locks the door, starting the Charger, which alerted the tall guy and his friends.

 

“Well, fuck it, I didn’t wanna bring it to you.” Momo says, annoyed, catching Mark’s attention easily by pushing his shoulder. “Any problem with that?”

 

“I have a lot of problems with that, Hirai. That car it’s my money right there.” He harshly says, pushing Momo back and making his friends laugh in excitement behind him.

 

“Momo, get in the car!” Jihyo called out for her, unlocking the passenger’s door.

 

“Well sorry for breaking the news for you buddy, but the car it’s not yours.” Momo, said in the same tone she used on Jihyo’s house when they argued. And as fast as she finished saying the words, her fist collided with Mark’s jaw, surprising every person around her.

 

“Well, breaking fucking news Hirai, you’re fucked.” He barks, throwing himself at Momo, who quickly evaded his punches and put her foot in front of him to make him trip.

 

Jihyo quickly got the signal and stepped on the pedal, watching as Momo basically ran for her life from the other guys on the gang, legs moving so fast she was glad the girl rode a bike every day. The situation was almost comical, especially because of Momo’s terrified squeals when she thought she wouldn’t be able to reach the car on time; only then Jihyo reacted and took a turn, giving the other girl to get into the car, breathless and pale because of the fear.

 

“Holy shit Jihyo drive faster-” She practically screamed when she closed the door. “I’m so fucked.”

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Am I okay?!” She looked at Jihyo in disbelief, lowering the window so she could stick her head out and see how the guys still tried to run behind the car until they disappeared with the rest of the street landscape “I’m screwed, I fucking punched Mark _and made him trip._ ”

 

Out of pure nervousness, and still focused more in the street ahead of her, Jihyo chuckled before it turned into a fit of laughter.

 

“Well, no shit, there goes your street cred.”

 

“Fuck you.” She groans, defeated. “Why the hell did you come to this side of the neighborhood anyway?”

 

“I said it, I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“Talk to me? Did you even consider the possibility of meeting the rest of the people who also wanted the car?”

 

“Well, it wasn’t my brightest moment” Jihyo admits, softly shoving Momo to the side so she could relax a bit. “But I didn’t find you on your way back home, I just wanted to- I just wanted to say thanks.”

 

“Be welcome then.” Momo squeaks out, and this time the both of them end up chuckling. “Damn I managed to get you in trouble in less than three minutes, that has to be a record.”

 

“It might be.”

 

**

 

“This has to be the longest conversation we had since we met.” Momo points out, elbow supported on the open window as she looks at the girl driving, a lot calmer than she was given the whole situation. “I’m sorry that I was such an asshole to you.”

 

“It’s okay, you fixed Old Tom so it’s all good.” Jihyo looks back at her, and the air gets stuck on Momo’s throat when she smiles, making her ears heat up.

 

“Just like that?”

 

“Just like that.” The Park girl confirms with a snap of her fingers.

 

Momo allows herself to smile then, studying the girl’s features as she basically has the time of her life driving around the town and towards the outskirts of it, approaching the coast. She realizes about the real value of the car when she sees the glow on Jihyo’s eyes when the engine roars as she speeds up on the open highways, or the tiny sighs she lets out when she takes a smooth turn.

 

“Want to know why I like cars so much?” She prompts, and Jihyo sends her a brief look before nodding. “When I drive, or travel in a vehicle, I forget about everything else; when I see the clouds passing by, it’s like nothing else matters, only the road and where it’ll take me.”

 

Jihyo smiles and looks at Momo again.

 

“And where it’s taking us now?”

 

“To the beach, apparently.”

 

“Nice.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

They fall into a comfortable silence, only accompanied by the sound of the ’69 Dodge Charger basically owning the road and the ocean breeze caressing their hair thanks to the opened windows. They reach the beach a bit later, and Jihyo stops the car with a contented sigh, patting the steering wheel and silently congratulating Old Tom for being able to make it through their little adventure so far.

 

Both girls end up leaning on the front of the car as they watch the ocean in front of them.

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t go out after our… Incident.”

 

“I should be the one saying sorry, I was the one who screwed up from the beginning.”

 

They look at each other and it’s like they can understand finally what makes them different and what makes them similar. Momo is the first one to look away, flustered by the sincerity of the other girl’s stare.

 

“Are we always going to be like this? Apologizing?” Momo asks in honest curiosity, and Jihyo raises one of her eyebrows, amused.

 

“Are you implying we’re going to be something, Hirai Momo?” Said girl immediately seems to trip over her own words, shaking her head as a blush raises up her neck and onto her cheeks.

 

“N-no, I mean, fuck, It’s just like… I don’t know.” She stutters “I was hoping we could, I dunno, hang out and be friends or something.” Jihyo chuckles then and Momo would be already burying her head on the ground if it wasn’t for the fact that she very much enjoyed the sound of her laughter.

 

They watch the ocean waves in silence for a while, not really worrying about the sun setting because in that brief moment they feel like they have all the time in the world.

 

“You’re not a bad person, Momo” Jihyo says after a while, and Momo welcomes the warmth of her words as the girl leans her head on her shoulder. “You could’ve let them take the car anyway, you had already finished your part of the deal with dad, but you didn’t; something tells me you wouldn’t have done it even if I wasn’t there.”

 

“I know what it means for the both of you.” Momo answers, and gently places her head on top of Jihyo’s, eyes fluttering close because she didn’t really remember when was the last time she let someone get so close to her; it felt nice for a change, to let herself look vulnerable in front of someone else.

 

“I got used to see you work every day.” Jihyo confesses, and her hand reaches out to take Momo’s, interlacing their fingers. It’s sudden, the affection they feel for each other, but not entirely strange, they’re young anyway.

 

“I like it when you’re near.” Momo replies, biting her lower lip in childish concentration.

 

“I do so too.”

 

“I’m glad I met you.” She clarifies, and shifts apart from Jihyo for a bit, just so she can look at her face; of course she’s taken aback by the beauty in close up, the sun making her tanned skin glow golden and convincing Momo that she was some kind of art piece. She swallows slowly, bravado slowly shifting away the more she looks into her eyes.

 

She’s too beautiful for her own good.

 

But of course, she has to make it harder for Momo to take a step forward and she smiles; for a moment she needs to make sure she’s entirely conscious because her heart stops beating for a second.

 

“You did the same thing in the house.”

 

“What?” Momo mindlessly asks.

 

“Looking at me like you want to ki-”

 

And Momo does kiss her then, and it’s messy, unexperienced and full of eagerness, and God, aren’t Jihyo’s lips perfect? And, is that vanilla chapstick? There’s so much of her that she notices at the moment, and at the same time it’s like her brain flatlined because it’s her who tilts her head so their noses aren’t squished against each other, because Momo just can’t get over the fact that she’s kissing this girl.

 

She wants to stay forever that way, and she must’ve mumbled that against her lips, because suddenly Jihyo is giggling and they have to part before it evolves in laughter. Momo blushes, but laughs along with her because yeah, it’s weird, rushed and out of nowhere, but who are they to stop whatever their heart wants? They are on the beach after riding a Dodge Charger without a license after escaping a group of delinquents anyway.

 

How weirder can it get?

 

“I want to buy you an ice cream.” Momo says, smiling cheekily.

 

“Okay.” Jihyo nods, still holding onto her hand.

 

And it’s simple as that, because what’s the charm on having two people with a sad past complicating things further when they can just… Be?

 

 


End file.
